


not you, just me

by starlightkun



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, also not a love triangle lmao i swear, but NOT WHO YOU THINK, slight e2l i suppose?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26906149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightkun/pseuds/starlightkun
Summary: in which you fake dating one member leads to you actually dating another
Relationships: Qian Kun/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	not you, just me

People’s lives can change in just a moment.

After all, it takes only a moment to say, “I do,” or to hold your baby for the first time, or to be handed that diploma, or to accept that new job across the country.

Or, in your case, for your manager to say:

“We need you to date Nakamoto Yuta.”

If you had water in your mouth, you would’ve done a spit-take. How glorious that would have been, spitting a mouthful of water all across Manager Han and SM’s faces. But instead, you choked on your own tongue for a moment before managing to stutter out, “I have to _what_?”

“It’ll be fake, of course. For the cameras, the press, all that.” Your manager said, as if that was meant to reassure you.

“W-why?” Your solo career was doing very well under SM Entertainment, as was NCT’s, you couldn’t imagine why he felt the need to draw such attention to either of you.

SM spoke up, “I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of a certain NCT 127 member engaging in… unsupported activities whilst they were in LA.”

“Mark got confused about the drinking age in America and had one beer, so now I have to become the most hated woman in not only South Korea, but _also_ Japan?”

“In order to get the heat off of Mark.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Your big issue wasn’t that you didn’t know or didn’t like Yuta, you had been friends with him since your trainee days and still saw him frequently. It was that you had feelings that went beyond just ‘liking’ for one of his group mates: Qian Kun. You hadn’t meant for that to happen, but it did. And “dating” Yuta would mean seeing him more frequently, which you were trying to avoid because so far avoiding your feelings had been working pretty swell for you.

Your manager butted in again, “Don’t worry about the ‘being hated’ part, we have a plan for that. Something no idol has ever done. The two of you won’t be a career-ruining scandal that we try to sweep under the rug. You’ll be SM’s _power couple_.”

* * *

“You’ve got to promise not to actually fall in love with me, Y/N.” Yuta joked as the two of you sat beside each other at a conference table a few days later. He surprisingly didn’t seemed alarmed about this entire situation at all.

“Oh that won’t be hard,” You retorted, to which he stuck his tongue out at you momentarily.

“That hurts my feelings.”

“Same goes for you, Nakamoto. No gross feelings for me either.”

“Oh that won’t be hard.”

You flicked his forehead, and his own hand came up to grab yours tenderly. With a sigh, you rolled your eyes, “No cameras in here, greaseball.”

“Oops.” Your friend was grinning as he released you, then turned to the two men on the other side of the table from you, your manager and NCT 127’s. “So what are we doing?”

“We’re going to introduce you two as a couple on SNS. Each of your Twitters, Instagrams, Fancafes, everything.” Manager Han explained first, seeming a little too giddy about this plan.

Yuta’s manager, Manager Choi, explained further, “It’ll be a picture of you two, then a caption writing about how the two of you are in love, and how you hope your fans will support you having found your true love, or something to that extent.”

“Gross.” Your nose wrinkled up at this, but nonetheless you took out your phone. “Does it have to be like, super lovey-dovey stuff on all of it? Or could it be like, one Tweet of a picture of us saying ‘Thank you to all the fans who have supported me thus far, I hope you will continue supporting me as I share with you someone who blah blah blah mushy gushy stuff,’ and then start casually posting photos on Instagram or something. Like Hyuna and E’Dawn did! They’re so cute, and they don’t make a big deal about it.”

“No, did you see how well that ended for them?” Your manager reminded you of the outcome of that.

“But theirs started as a rumor and a scandal before they started their casual posting.” You pointed out insistently. “If we start off as SM’s supported power couple, and immediately begin posting casually, wouldn’t it be better? It’ll be a big enough deal that they won’t care about Mark’s beer mishap in LA, but not so much that I’ll have crazed NCTzens coming to my apartment to kill me.”

The managers were silent as they seemed to be deliberating through telepathy or something. Yuta spoke up in agreement with you, “That sounds like a much better plan. It’ll be more natural and fits our personalities better. I couldn’t imagine Y/N ever being mushy-gushy about anything except for her dog.”

“Exactly.”

Manager Han and Manager Choi had a small conversation in hushed murmurs before your manager reluctantly addressed the both of you, “Alright, let’s compromise. One official post on SM’s newsite, and on Y/N and NCT 127’s fancafes. Tweet out a link to the fancafe posts on your Twitters, as well as one tweet that believably shows that you two are in love, okay? Then you can go about your casual posting after that.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Yuta shrugged, and all three men waited upon your approval with mildly bated breath.

“Fine, fine. But I’m _not_ using the word love in any of my posts.”

* * *

And so from there, almost every post, mention, and appearance of your “relationship” was carefully planned out by your managers. From the initial Tweets that contained one picture of you two standing next to each other, Yuta’s arm around your shoulders with your respective captions asking for the fans’ support in your relationship, to a strategically-placed question in one of your interviews which required a somewhat rehearsed answer, to your “dates” in public, and casual posts on your Instagrams.

Yuta took on the part of the heads-over-heels boyfriend while you were the slightly-embarrassed but mostly indifferent girlfriend. And the fans ate it up.

“Hey, I’m going to be there in like two minutes,” You said as soon as Yuta had picked up your call, emerging on the streets outside your apartment building. Being a solo artist meant that you had more freedom to choose where you lived, while idols in groups tended to have to be in the dorms with their members. You weren’t terribly far from the dorms, but at least you weren’t actually _in_ them. You had some sense of freedom at least.

“Where’s there? The dorms? I’m not there right now. Jaehyun, Taeil, and I went out to lunch.” Yuta explained, and in the background, you could hear the sounds of the two mentioned men holding their own conversation.

You stopped right at the corner where if you turned left and took a mere three steps, you’d be at the door of their dorms. “ _We_ were supposed to go out to lunch at one-thirty, Yuta. The managers put it in two days ago, don’t you check the schedule?”

“No, you’re usually nagging me about these things so that I do remember.”

“We’re not going to fight like an actual couple about this, are we?”

“Nope. I apologize, I’ll make sure to look next time.”

“Can’t believe I did my makeup for nothing.”

“We can still meet up and go to a park after this to get the pictures for SNS, okay?”

“Alright, I’ll just wait for you at the Dreamie dorms. They’re way more fun than you grandpas in NCT 127.”

In the brief time that you had been in this fake relationship with Yuta, you’d become familiar with all the members and both NCT 127’s dorm and the Dreamie dorm. They were only one door down from each other, meaning that you were likely to find your “boyfriend” in either one on any given day.

“I’ll continue on as if I wasn’t offended by that statement. You know who else is at the Dreamie dorms right now?”

With a reluctant sigh, you asked, “Who?”

“Kun.”

At some point in this fake relationship, you had admitted your unfortunately persistent and ever-growing crush on Kun to him. More like he had browbeaten it out of you at dinner one night, a dinner that half of NCT—including Kun—had attended with you. Thankfully, it was while Kun was in the bathroom, and you had dragged your friend by his ear to a corner of the restaurant before saying anything self-incriminating.

“Yuta.”

“Y/N.”

“I’m going home, Yuta. Come pick me up at my apartment.”

“Nope. We meet at the Dreamie dorms or it doesn’t happen. And then we _both_ get yelled at by our managers for not posting tomorrow.”

“Fine,” You spat out before abruptly hanging up the call.

Kun thankfully hadn’t been the one to answer the door, it was Ten, another old friend of yours from your trainee days. He greeted you with a big smile and a hug, ushering you in further to their dorms. While Kun didn’t actually live in this part of the SM dorms, he only lived one floor up with Lucas and the Chinese rookies, so he visited the other NCT dorms frequently. And you weren’t sure why Ten lived with Dreamies, but he at least fit in size-wise. Unlike Jungwoo, another non-Dreamie resident of the Dreamie dorm. Though, in enough time, Jisung would be up there with him.

Both of the long and lanky boys were sprawled across the couch, effectively taking up all the space.

“You noodles better move so I can sit down.” You crossed your arms as you stopped in front of the couch.

They both leapt up to greet you, Jisung’s normal disdain for skinship fading as he quickly yet tightly hugged you. While he usually pushed his older members away, he had come to SM and started training and debuted at such a young age that you’d pretty much turned into an older sister figure for him. He would never admit it, but you’d cradled him in your arms on the floor of practice rooms while he soaked your shirt with his tears multiple times. Which you probably couldn’t do now, on account that your initial height difference had been reversed since then, but nonetheless you still held a fondness for the boy you would always see as your baby brother.

Jungwoo didn’t know you for as long or in the same way that Jisung, Ten, or Yuta knew you. He joined SM well after you debuted, and you hadn’t properly met him until you’d started fake-dating Yuta. But still, the affectionate man had never met a stranger he couldn’t snuggle up to, which included you.

“We’re watching Princess Monanoke!” He grabbed your hand without hesitation, tugging on it insistently for you to follow him to the couch. “We’re like, ten minutes in, so we can rewind it for you!”

You were unfazed by the skinship, instead anxiously looking around for the one person Yuta had told you for sure would be here. Kun was nowhere to be seen, much to your relief. Maybe you could actually relax before Yuta came and picked you up.

“I’ll go let the others know you’re here, finally drag them away from their video games.” Ten offered, turning to leave the room, but you stopped him.

“You don’t need to!” You cried out, halting your move to sit down. “I’m not going to be here for too long, Yuta’s coming soon.”

“Well then I should definitely get them. I’ll get an earful if they find out they missed you.”

“No!”

Judging by the three doors opening, you had yelled that out way too loud. Jeno’s head poked out first, looking around as Jaemin’s voice came from behind him, “Was that Y/N?”

“Y/N’s here!” Renjun cheered from his own doorway.

Jeno was suddenly pushed to the ground as two blurs of pastel pink and green hair barreled towards you, only the pink one slowing down as they reached you to gently throw his arms around your neck. The other nearly knocked you over in his excitement, arms around your waist.

“Y/N! I missed you!”

“You saw me two days ago, Jaemin.” You scoffed, patting the taller boy’s head affectionately.

The members of NCT knew that you weren’t actually dating Yuta, which is probably why they felt comfortable showing this much skinship with you. After all, if you were his actual girlfriend, no way would they be able to so much as touch your arm without losing a finger. But you weren’t, so they had a free pass to pretty much assault you with as many hugs and hand-holding and cuddles that you could deal with.

“Yeah, two days is pretty much an eternity.”

“LeLe!” You squealed as you addressed the other boy that was superglued to your side, ruffling the boy’s hair with two hands. “ _You_ , I have not seen in weeks! How are you? How’s your family?”

Chenle lived nearby the dorms with his family, meaning that when you had spur-of-the-moment visits to the dorms, you weren’t likely to see him, “Ah, we’re doing good! My mom started an herb garden, she’s really proud of her sage.”

“Oh that’s nice.”

Once they had released you, Renjun and Jeno also came up to greet you, much mellower than them. The man who had come out of the third door had a polite smile on his face as he approached you, one that unfortunately made your heart skip _several_ beats.

“Hi, Y/N.” Kun nodded to you as he walked by you. So nonchalant.

Your cheeks turned embarrassingly warm to the touch as you were unable to reply. You were cursing yourself the whole time as you turned so that your eyes could follow him to where he stopped in front of Jisung on the couch. He held out an empty purple reusable water bottle to him, “It was under your bed, Jisungie.”

“Oh. Thanks, Kun.”

The other man on the couch was sitting there with a pout, glaring up at Kun.

“What?”

“We’re _trying_ to watch Princess Monanoke!” Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t actually scold the others, really looking more like an upset toddler than an annoyed older brother.

“Sorry, Jungwoo.” Kun apologized with humor in his voice, starting towards the door. “I’ve got errands to run for _my_ dorm now, I’ll see you all later.”

“Wait!” Ten called after him. “Y/N just got here and now you’re leaving? Don’t you want to at least stay and watch the movie with us?”

“I’m good, I just watched it the other night with Hendery.”

With that, despite the other members’ continuing protests, Kun slipped his shoes on and wordlessly left the dorms. The remaining boys all let out noises of disappointment.

“Sorry, Y/N.” Ten sighed as you joined Jungwoo and Jisung on the couch.

“For what?” You croaked out with your mouth still dry from the _two words_ Kun had spoken to you.

He and Jeno exchanged a look before everyone else flopped down either on the couch, on another person, or on the floor in front of the couch to continue the movie.

* * *

Yuta showed up right as the credits started rolling, mischievous smirk turning into a disappointed glare as he took in the boys sprawled out around you, “What are you cockblockers doing here?”

“Kun did all the cockblocking himself.” Jaemin scoffed from where he was being enveloped by Jungwoo’s much larger form.

“What?” You questioned, head resting against Chenle’s.

Yuta still didn’t address you, lecturing the others, “You all were supposed to leave Y/N and Kun here alone, but instead of coming back to find them making out, I’m greeted with you all puppy piled on each other watching anime with Kun nowhere in sight!”

“You really sounded like a voyeur there, Yuta.” Ten teased as you could feel your blood start boiling.

You patted Jisung’s head that was laying on your thigh as a signal that you wanted to stand up. Carefully stepping over the boys on the floor, you joined your friend by the front door, glaring intensely, “Did you seriously conspire to try to get Kun and I alone together? You’re really fucking lucky we’re about to go take pictures, or else I’d break your damn nose.”

Remembering that the fans always left the most approving comments of your “relationship” when you were wearing his clothes, you snatched Yuta’s jacket from his grip. After pointedly tugging it over your arms, you stomped to the front door, “Bye.”

Yuta had to speed-walk to catch up to you outside the door, not seeming nearly as apologetic as you wanted, “Why can’t you be _that_ confident around Kun? You’re so fucking badass, Y/N, but you never let him see that side of you.”

“I know! I know that I don’t!” You spat out, firmly gripping his upper arm as you started walking down the bustling sidewalks. “But it doesn’t fucking matter. As soon as he realized I was there, he couldn’t seem to leave fast enough for his liking! He hates me, Yuta.”

Your fiery rant had pittered out to a self-pitying mumble as you felt hot tears of frustration and angst prick at your eyes. You urged him to stop at the doors of some shop, burying your face in his shoulder as you tried to conceal and stop your tears. Fansites wouldn’t be following you, this wasn’t an official schedule and as far as you knew, neither you nor Yuta had any sasaengs. But even then, you could never guarantee that a random fan wouldn’t spot you and try to film you two. You had to get these tears under control.

Yuta could tell that he had obviously struck a cord with you, rubbing your back soothingly as he softly apologized, “I’m sorry, Y/N. I didn’t mean to make you cry. If Kun really does hate you—which I highly doubt—then he’s stupider than I thought.”

You chuckled a little bit at this, wiping at your eyes as he continued on, “Hey, do you think they’ll have us get like, fake-married, and have fake kids too?”

“Oh please,” You took your face out of his shoulder to scoff. “I think I’d rather die than be the mother to your fake children.”

“There’s my Y/N.” Yuta grinned approvingly, linking his arm back through yours and leading you back out onto the streets. “But really, I think our kids would be cute as hell, no matter how fake.”

You pinched his arm, earning a satisfying yelp.

* * *

From then on, you didn’t trust pretty much any scenario that you knew Kun was going to be involved in, out of fear that Yuta and the others would try to pull that same stunt again. Luckily, having your own comeback to be worrying about kept you plenty busy enough to avoid every member of NCT.

Today was your first stage for your comeback, and your manager had told you earlier that Yuta was going to come visit you backstage beforehand, keeping up his supportive boyfriend persona. You were sitting on a couch trying to replace your earrings without a mirror when you felt a chin resting on top of your head.

“Hey, Yuta.” You greeted him, still intensely focused on finding the hole that you knew was _somewhere_ on your earlobe.

When the person didn’t reply, you figured that it might not be Yuta, “Hey, Jungwoo.”

Nothing.

“Jisung? Jaemin? Ten? Mark?”

“I’m offended that you’d think of Mark before me,” they finally replied, and you lit up as Donghyuck came around to sit down beside you.

“Hyuckie!” You hugged your friend, not expecting him to come visit you too. “Oh my god, hi!”

“Yuta was taking too long trying to find a flower for you with our manager, so I left them.”

“No, you pushed me into the stairwell and locked the door behind you,” came the accusatory voice of Yuta from behind you.

You burst out laughing when you turned around to find him disheveled and irritated, a few pieces of hair stuck to the sweat on his forehead from climbing all those stairs, and a single red rose in his hand. Donghyuck giggled along beside you until Yuta thrust the rose towards you before pouncing on the younger boy. His giggles turned to a screech as the older man put him in a chokehold on the ground in front of your feet, “You’re such a brat!”

“Let go of him, Yuta. He’s just a kid.” You snickered from above them, tapping them lightly with your foot.

Changing the subject, you took out your phone, “Here, we need pictures for SNS.”

Donghyuck accepted the device, “But I also want pictures with you, Y/N.”

“Of course, after the obligatory ones of _SM’s power couple_.” You handed the rose back to Yuta in order to take a moment and adjust his hair. “Gross, you’re all sweaty.”

“It’s not my fault that they don’t air condition the stairwells.” He retorted, standing still patiently for you to finish making him look presentable.

Posing with the rose in one hand and Yuta’s arm across your shoulders, you put on your brightest grin for the pictures. After a few different poses and taking a couple selfies with the front camera, you put your phone into Yuta’s hands for him to take your pictures with Donghyuck. Finally, your manager came and took a picture of the three of you together.

“I’ll send you the ones that I’m not posting,” You told them as you drafted your Tweet, including pictures with the both of them in it, penning your in-character caption and tagging NCT and NCT 127.

“So are you only doing ‘Water Drops’ tonight?” Yuta asked as he made himself comfy on the one small couch in your dressing room.

Pushing his legs off, you sat down beside him, “I’m doing a mini-stage of one of my B-sides as well.”

“’Just Saying?’” Donghyuck perched himself on the arm of the couch beside Yuta, and you were touched that he had knowledge of your new songs.

“No, actually ‘Not You, Just Me.’”

“Oh, the one about Kun.” Yuta stated nonchalantly.

“It’s not—”

“It’s a song about unrequited love and feeling like the person you like hates you. You’re not fooling me, Y/N.”

Donghyuck looked extremely confused, and at first you thought that he didn’t know about your feelings for Kun and was about to put Yuta in a chokehold when he commented with a frown, “Kun doesn’t hate you, Y/N. He—”

“Jesus, it’s not about Kun!” You screeched, standing up and stalking over to your mirror with your earrings.

* * *

After your performance, you were half-asleep in the backseat of your car ride home, tweeting out a couple more pictures of yourself and saying thank you to your fans for the support on your comeback thus far when your phone buzzed. You only glanced at the contact name briefly before the notification went back up. Eyes widening, you swiped down to double-check the text again.

[qian kun: your performance was really good]

You vaguely remembered having Kun’s number from being put in a group chat during your trainee days, but you didn’t imagine that he’d have kept _yours_ , much less use it to actually _text you_ , especially not to _compliment you_.

Your head was spinning as your lame thumbs hurried to type out your reply.

[you: thank you so much!]

The rest of the night until you finally fell asleep, you were anticipating a reply from Kun that never came.

* * *

“So, Y/N, what’s your favorite B-side from the mini-album?” The MC asked you, your new album proudly on display on the table between the two of you.

“A lot of my friends say that they like ‘Just Saying.’” You replied politely, keeping up your ‘idol smile’ as you spoke.

“But I asked for _your_ favorite.”

You inhaled and paused. Your company, the MC, and fans watching were hanging onto your every word, waiting for you to drop breadcrumbs about your “relationship” with Yuta. To confirm the speculations that the most romantic track, ‘Only One’ was about him. In fact, your manager had coached you for this specific question beforehand.

“’Not You, Just Me.’” Was your confident answer, dropping your persona for a moment as you continued on. “It was a song whose lyrics I truly penned from the heart, from years of experience. Everything from the words down to the BPM were taken straight from me, from times when I’ve felt like that. Vulnerable, forgotten, not good enough. I remember the first time I listened to the finished version, I cried. It’s so painfully me that I couldn’t help it. And I hope that everyone who listens to it can feel something like that too.”

A weight was lifted off your chest just then, even though you were well aware of the earful you’d get from your manager after this. You had always promised your fans to be honest about your music, and you weren’t about to forgo that trust now. The interviewer nodded, flipping to her next notecard, immediately becoming animated again, “Ooh, okay. So we all know about the ridiculously stunning outfits in your music video, which was your favorite to film in?”

The rest of the interview continued on like that, superficial questions that you had little to no interest in. But you were content with your slightly rebellious answer from earlier, leaving you complacent and satiated for it. Your manager surprisingly didn’t comment on your b-side answer as he lead you out to the car.

“Have you and Yuta started preparing your stage for SM Town in New York?” He asked instead, making your eyes nearly roll into the back of your head.

SM Town was having a huge showcase in New York in two months, and the company wanted you and Yuta to have your own ‘power couple’ stage for it. You still had no clue why they were keeping this up, netizens had long forgotten about Mark having a beer in LA, which was supposed to be your purpose for fake-dating. But now you had just celebrated your three-month fake-aversary, and it felt like it was dragging on for way too long.

“We have some ideas,” You told him noncommittally. In reality, you hadn’t done anything for it yet. “How long are we going to keep this up? People have forgotten about Mark by now.”

“Y/N, it’s more than that now, can’t you see? You two are _SM’s power couple_.” At the clear skepticism on your face, he added on, “After the initial shock, our stocks went up by over 150%, and your fans and NCTzens alike are madly eating up every SNS post, music video, song, and album that either of you put out. You had an all-kill this comeback, Y/N. Last time you barely charted. NCT 127’s teaser pictures are getting three times as many retweets as their last ones from just _five months ago_. This is the best thing that’s happened to SM Entertainment in years.”

“So I’m going to take that as an ‘eventually.’” Disgruntled, you focused your attention down to your phone screen, making it clear to him that you didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

* * *

“Water break!” You declared, laying down on the cool floor of the practice room as Yuta went to pause the ever-looping song.

The two of you were practicing your duet for SM Town in New York and had been running through the whole thing on repeat for a good part of the day. It was a smooth, suggestive song that had you in a much closer proximity to your friend than you would’ve liked. At least you worked well together, it really brought you back to your trainee days.

“Do you remember our performance at the trainee showcase? Our last one before you debuted?” Yuta recalled as he grabbed two water bottles from the mini-fridge in the corner.

“Of course. It was me, you, Yeri, and Ten. We produced our own song that was absolutely horrendous, but we thought it was a banger at the time,” you couldn’t help but cackle along with Yuta as the song played in your head.

“And we absolutely killed it.”

“ _Yeah_.”

Sitting up, you unscrewed the cap from the bottle he had just handed you, taking a deep breath before chugging three-fourths of it in one go. Refreshing. The two of you continued reminiscing in your trainee and rookie days for a few more minutes before determining that you had to get back up and start practicing again.

Just as you got to the part where you had to lean back and grab Yuta’s face to bring it closer to yours, as if you were going to kiss—which you most definitely were _not_ going to do—you spotted someone at the doorway to the practice room. With a surprised yelp, you wrenched yourself from Yuta’s grasp, stumbling forward away from him before turning around to face the visitor.

Kun was dressed in a white t-shirt and dark wash jeans with his forehead peering out from underneath his light brown hair, a look that should not have had your heart thumping so loud in your ears, but it did. Or maybe that was the heart attack he had just given you. In his hand was a plastic bag with what looked like a couple to-go containers inside. He blinked blankly at you for a moment before looking away to address Yuta, holding the bag out towards him, “Brought you lunch.”

“You’re the best, Kun!” Yuta took it over to the singular stool beside the door. “Are you eating with us?”

“I can’t. NCT U is practicing their SM Town stage and I have to be in the room for my very important part of doing absolutely nothing and not even being on stage.” He deadpanned, a statement that brought a wrangled, choking laugh out from the depths of your constricted throat.

Kun’s eyes snapped back over to you briefly, and you could’ve sworn you saw the corner of his mouth almost curl into a smile before he turned his attention to Yuta once again.

“I mean, Y/N and I were just finishing, and the other day she was telling me about this sasaeng who has started hanging out around her apartment building, so maybe you know, we should both walk her home, for extra protection.”

You looked at Yuta with a nearly incredulous look. Every single thing he said was a flat out lie, you had at least another hour of practicing left, and there was no sasaeng out by your apartment building. “I don’t—”

“It sounds like she needs a real body guard, not us two wimps.” Kun once again had his dry humor in his voice, earning a strained giggle from you. He started back towards the door, gently turning the handle to yank it open, “Bye Yuta, bye Y/N.”

Your heart lurched to your throat when he said your name, making you unable to even mumble a goodbye to him until the door was shut and he was long gone from earshot. Crumpling to the ground, you curled into a ball and let out a half-screech half-groan into your knees.

“I’m fucking pathetic.” You moaned as you hit the side of your head against the wood paneling of the floor repeatedly.

“Y/N.” Yuta forcibly sat you up to keep you from self-injury, mimicking your position to stay eye-level with you. “As your best friend of six years now—”

“Best friend?” You snorted, earning a silencing glare from him.

“As I was saying. As your good friend of six years now, I hate seeing you do this to yourself. You’ve been whipped for him for how long?”

“Five years.”

This had clearly caught him off-guard, “Wait, what?”

“It was Kun’s first day at SM. He knew a handful of phrases in Korean, even fewer in English, and I knew no Chinese. But he was so… genuine. Even though we didn’t have a real conversation, I wanted to keep talking to him.” You gripped your knees even tighter to your chest as you spoke, miserably reliving the interaction.

“And did you?”

“Yeah. We started going in for our language classes together, he was learning Korean and I was learning English. Every time he learned something new in Korean, he would share it with me, and he’d be so proud, and his eyes would just… light up whenever I complimented his pronunciation or grammar. We started having real conversations soon enough, and with each one my first impression of him never changed. He was genuine, well-rooted, and absolutely wonderful. And I had—have it bad for him.”

“It’s been five years.”

“It hasn’t been five years of pure pining, I’m not that pathetic.” You scoffed at the notion, releasing one leg to gently kick his. “It comes and goes. It only got bad again once you and I started fake dating.”

“And you want to real date him.”

“Even if he actually liked me, there’s no way we could now. SM has made you and me their power couple, we’re the face of the company. They’re not planning on letting us break up anytime soon, and after that I could never show any romantic interest in another idol, much less one under the same company and in the same group as you. I’d be labelled a whore who deserves to be burned at the stake by every netizen. It’s a catch-22, a lose-lose for me.”

Yuta flicked your forehead, a harsh snap out of your melancholy trance. “You, my dear, are extremely negative.”

You flicked him back, “You, my dear, are obnoxiously positive. Besides, I’m not being negative, I’m being real.”

“Who says being real means thinking everything’s gone to shit? Being real can also be seeing a bright side to things.”

“Please give me the bright side of this situation.”

“We might actually have those fake kids.”

At this you pushed him over, which he took in stride to dramatically roll over and sprawl out on the floor as if he was a cartoon character who had just been killed by an anvil. He popped back up to say, “But seriously, the bright side is that now you have the opportunity to confront your feelings for him. This is it, Y/N. You either do it or you don’t. Tell him now or let him go. Don’t let this keep eating at you.”

“You sound like a fanfic, Yuta.”

“Am I wrong?”

“Okay, so what if I do tell him? And what if he feels the same? Then what are we going to do?”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“You’re such a big help.”

“I’m not supposed to be planning your whole life for you. I’m here to motivate you to do that shit for yourself.”

You had been on this uncomfortable and depressing topic for way too long, “Can we just eat and get back to practicing?”

* * *

SM Town New York was here, and you already wanted to go back home.

It wasn’t that you didn’t like the idea of performing and getting to see your international fans as well as part of a new country. It was that you had to perform, see your international fans, and part of a new country, all under the guise of Yuta’s girlfriend. With Kun tagging along to most everything you did, while still completely ignoring you. He wasn’t necessarily mean or rude to you, he was just indifferent, and maybe slightly avoiding you. Which was probably for the best, as every time he spoke to you, you were rendered either speechless or barely able to stumble your way through a semi-intelligible reply. Pathetic really was the only word you could come up with for yourself.

The first day you were in New York was arranged just for the artists to get situated in their hotels and explore. The next day was the concert, and the day after you’d fly back to Korea. Being a solo artist didn’t save you from rooming with someone else. You were set up in a room with Taeyeon, another female soloist you were familiar with. Much like you had been Jisung’s older sister when he came to the company, Taeyeon had been yours. And now she was lecturing about your crush on Kun. You couldn’t even blame Yuta for this one, you’d told her about it five years ago when you’d first realized it. And now you were realizing that might have been your biggest mistake ever.

“It’s really been five years and you’ve done nothing?” She asked as you were sat on your bed in your hotel room, and she paced along in front of you.

“How many times are you going to ask me that?” You groaned, pulling on a shoe.

“Y/N, why haven’t you done anything?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I was trying to debut, and then trying to not ruin my career, and then you know, trying to uh, still not ruin my career.”

“I don’t mean dating him specifically, I mean in general. You haven’t gotten over him, you haven’t asked him out. You’re stagnant. You’ve got to do something.”

“You sound like Yuta now.”

“Well then Yuta’s right. Do something.”

“Can I worry about doing something when we get back home?”

“Nope. I want you either dating him or getting over him before we get back on that plane.”

Sighing, you started putting your jacket and your shoes back on, “I’m going to get some food with a couple Dreamies, are you coming?”

“I have some other stuff to do first, go have fun,” She dismissed you with a smile, knowing that she had given you something to think about.

Stuffing your phone in your jacket pocket, you pressed the down button impatiently. You were to be meeting Renjun and Jeno in the lobby, they were apparently already there. You probably should have been going with Yuta, but he was rooming with Kun and Lucas, and you just needed time with someone who wasn’t related to any of that for just a little bit.

You saw a figure walking towards you from the end of the hall and started pushing the elevator button again desperately. When the doors opened, you darted in, but a hand stopped it before the rest of the body followed. Kun stepped on coolly, not even glancing at you as he asked, “Lobby?” with his hand hovering over the panel of buttons.

“Uh, yes.” You were way too proud of yourself for that one-word answer, trying to move yourself as far away from him as possible, as inconspicuously as possible.

“So, are you excited for the performance tomorrow?” He spoke up, and you took two deep breaths before answering.

“Yeah, yeah. Are you?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

Curiosity overrode your awkwardness, “Are you performing more than Black on Black?”

“No, just that one song. But it’s still a fun song nonetheless.”

You frowned, about to say something else when he already was questioning you again.

“Your duet with Yuta, you look— uhm, the dance uh looks… good.”

“Oh, thanks.” Now or never, Y/N, “Kun, I—”

The elevator successfully cut you off with a _bing!_ and the two boys standing just a few feet away immediately whipped around, spotting you inside.

“Y/N! Kun!” They waved you two over fervently.

You went to try to get off, but Kun was still standing there, looking at you curiously, “What were you—”

“It’s nothing, I already forgot.” You mumbled, hurrying over to your younger friends.

Surprisingly, Kun had followed you there too, and before you could raise a question to this, more people joined the group: Amber, and what seemed to be half of EXO. This was way more than you had signed up for. Several hellos and greetings and yells were happening as the group moved out, and you could feel you closing in on yourself. Most of these people you weren’t terribly close to, not to mention that Kun was there too. This was not going to be as fun of a lunch as you thought.

* * *

Flanked by a couple managers, your group meandered through a nearby mall that was surprisingly devoid of people. Probably because it was noon on a Thursday, most people were at work. There was suddenly a soft elbow in your side, and when you turned to them, your scowl immediately faded away, “Hi Jeno.”

“You’re not having fun, Y/N.” He stated quietly as the two of you were at the back of the mass of people.

“I just wanted to get lunch with you and Renjun, not all this.” You admitted, even quieter than he had been, not wanting your other labelmates to hear and get the wrong idea. Normally, you liked hanging out with all of them, you were just too tired and too sad to truly participate in the group banter.

“Well then, let’s go!”

Before you could stop him, Jeno had snaked his arm between Baekhyun and Sehun to latch onto Renjun’s and yank him back. The older men didn’t even seem fazed as the group kept moving, leaving the three of you behind.

“What was that for?” Renjun shook Jeno’s grip off with a huff.

“Y/N wanted to go get lunch.”

“Hey, are you guys okay?” Kun had approached your much smaller group, a concerned frown on his face as he looked between your stationary cluster and the larger group still moving away.

“Yeah, we’re getting lunch.”

“You should bring a manager with you.”

Renjun suddenly got a mischievous smirk across his face, “Or… we could bring you! You’re a responsible adult with a wallet!”

Kun didn’t even comment on the fact that they had just alluded to not having money with them, instead agreeing to it with a sigh, “Fine, where are we eating?”

* * *

The boys chose McDonald’s.

Of all the semi-fine dining options in the mall, they insisted on McDonald’s. You really didn’t care all that much about the food, what you cared more about was the fact that Renjun and Jeno squished into one side of the booth after getting their food, leaving you and Kun on the other side, sitting an awkward distance away from each other and quietly eating.

“So are you guys excited for the concert tomorrow?” Jeno asked cheerfully, and you nearly pulled a muscle in your eye from how hard you’re rolling them. What blander of a topic could he have chosen?

“For my one song? Yeah.” Kun chuckles bitterly, popping a fry in his mouth.

“But you’re still so good in it!” The younger boy tries to reassure him.

Renjun snickers, “Yeah, we’re all so good because nobody can see us if we fuck up. Well, except you, Jeno, you actually get center for a little. Can’t fuck up in peace for like a whole 10 seconds.”

Jeno opens his mouth to protest, but the other two are still laughing at this somewhat optimistic view of their nonexistent roles in Black on Black. Renjun manages to rope you back into the conversation, “Oh, poor Y/N, you can’t fuck up at all, huh?”

“Oh, but I still do,” you shake your head, thinking back to how you were up until early this morning in the practice room going over the _five_ songs you’d be performing at the concert. Three solos, your duet with Yuta, and one of Key’s new solo songs that had a featured artist whose part you were to be covering. Being able to sleep on the plane allowed you to stay up until three in the morning running through them over and over again. Your legs ached thinking of it, and you knew that your sleep tonight wouldn’t be much better. You’d be running off of pure adrenaline tomorrow.

“Eh?” Kun questioned this through a mouthful of his hamburger, a sight that nearly made you burst out laughing.

Suppressing your smile, you answered, “There’s one note in Key’s song that I can hit about… 35% of the time, and a move in my duet with Yuta that I keep slipping on. Not to mention that I don’t get any breaks between my three solo songs, no time for water or anything. It’ll be rough tomorrow.”

The light conversation turned unnaturally tense as he had swallowed his bite, practically snarling out, “At least you get to be on stage for five whole ass songs, and your fans get to see you and actually fucking hear you.”

Jeno dropped his chicken nugget and Renjun choked on his drink for a moment as you were unwittingly stuck in a terrifying staring contest with Kun. You realized that you were extremely fortunate to be on stage for so long, and with a thousand times more lines than he had and would have immediately stuttered out an apology for your thoughtlessness if he wasn’t still glaring at you.

“Well, I’m full!” Jeno said cheerfully, packing up his five nuggets that he still had left into their box, as well as most of his fries and drink.

Renjun scrambled to put his food away, and you yourself had only eaten a few fries and bites of your meal, but you weren’t sure if you could eat anything else now. Your stomach was twisted much too tightly for you to be able to eat anytime soon, especially not with Kun around.

What the hell _was_ that?

* * *

You hadn’t spoken to, seen, or even let yourself dare think about any member of NCT for the rest of that night. Some of them tried to text you or drop by your hotel room, but Taeyeon would faithfully answer the door and reply that you were in the bath, or already asleep. The truth was, you had spent a considerable amount of time in the bathtub, soaking your body in the warm water but drowning your mind in self-pity. When parts of you that you didn’t even know could prune were pruning, you heaved yourself out with a sigh.

Trudging back out to the bedroom a few minutes later, you were fully intending on flopping onto your bed and screaming into your pillow for an hour straight, but Taeyeon had other ideas. She was sat at the head of your bed, and patted her thigh, “Come here, sweetheart.”

Obedient and too sad and tired to protest, you laid down on the bed, resting your head in her lap as you had done countless times before. Her fingers brushed through your wet locks, pulling them away from your face and ears.

“What happened today, Y/N?”

You couldn’t try to cover it up: your demeanor, the countless NCT members who had come by with concern for you in their features, the occasional sob you bit back in the bathtub that she probably still could’ve heard out here, there was definitely something wrong. And you let it all bubble up and spill out from your mouth, your body overflowing with hurt and regret from that singular encounter of today with Kun.

When you had managed to mumble and stumble your way through the story, Taeyeon’s fingers stilled in your hair as she let out a heavy sigh before resuming their repetitive motions along your scalp. “Oh, sweetheart,” she tsked softly, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” you spit out, “Sorry that I ever had feelings for someone who is apparently the biggest asshole of SM.”

“Hey,” your friend flicked your head before smoothing over the area, “He was probably just frustrated over his lack of lines and stage time. He absolutely didn’t have the right to snap at you, but it doesn’t mean that he’s an asshole, or that he hates you. Maybe it was just… misdirected anger.”

“You’re not really helping my plan of hating his guts in order to get over him, Taeyeon.”

* * *

In the morning, all the artists piled into the many vans waiting at the curbside of the hotel, and you got in the one with most of the other soloists. You were stuffed in the back between Taeyeon and Key, who said he had thought of something cool to add to your collab stage that he wanted to tell you as soon as possible. Amber, Taemin, and Onew were in the middle row, with one of the staff members beside the driver in the front.

You were intently listening to Kibum’s idea of turning the parts you were covering into more of a response to his parts than an addition like they were in the original song, which would require only changing a few words and pieces of choreography. It would make your involvement more romantic and longing, an interesting change from the original parts. The idea seemed doable, mostly because you had two official rehearsals and a bunch of time to kill from when you arrived to when you would perform.

“I mean, only if it wouldn’t make Yuta jealous,” Kibum finished his explanation with a playful jab at your predicament, one that made you roll your eyes and wrinkle your nose.

“The only thing you could do to make him angry is to insult the fake children he insists we’re going to have,” you scoffed, earning laughter from the whole van.

“You’ll name your fake daughter after me, right?” Taeyeon batted her eyelashes at you, a joke that struck a chord with Taemin, apparently.

“Your fake son better be named after me, then!” He turned around to yell.

“Yah!” Kibum replied, “He’ll be named after me, obviously!”

“You guys are ridiculous,” you groaned then turned playful as you said, “We’re obviously going to name them after Super Junior members.”

All of your friends turned indignant at your retort, and you found yourself joining in on the laughter, worries crumbling away.

* * *

“Thank you,” you nodded to the staff member who had just adjusted your mic pack in your brief break between your own solo songs and your collaboration stage with Yuta.

Speaking of, your fake boyfriend was nowhere to be seen, and you peered around with a frown. You spotted Kun and Ten walking in, and went up to them, still fiddling with your mic, “Hey, have you guys seen Yuta?”

Ten’s face mirrored your own thoughtful frown, “I thought he was over here with you. I’ll go look for him.”

With that, Ten disappeared out of the room, leaving you briefly with Kun. Very, incredibly briefly, as when you turned back to him, he gave you a coarse look before walking away from you. Anger boiled inside you, displacing the hurt you had felt the day before. You needed to do something, just like your friends had been telling you to.

“I’m sorry about being selfish and ungrateful yesterday.” You forced the apology out, receiving no response other than the slowing of his steps.

When he still hadn’t acknowledged your apology at all, you snapped, “Do you have a problem with me?”

Finally, you caused the man to whip around, the clear surprise on his features turning to mirror your own anger.

“Excuse me?” His brow was furrowed, and his features all registered in your head as **_‘PISSED OFF!! DANGER!! PISSED OFF!! WARNING!!’_** but you ignored the alarm bells.

“You act like a complete and utter jerk to me, and I don’t—”

Kun immediately cut you off, taking two large strides towards you, “Oh, just because I don’t treat you like some princess like the other members of NCT—and hell, _all of SM_ —do just because you’re dating Yuta, that means I’m a jerk?”

“I’m not _actually_ dating Yuta, and I don’t expect special treatment because of it either!”

“Your relationship with Yuta may not be real, but the effects and the implications of it sure as hell are.”

He stormed out of the room, leaving you with his final comment whirling around in your head. It was absolutely true, that this had a real effect on your life even if the relationship itself wasn’t. Nothing would ever be the same after this, whether you liked it or not. But you still didn’t know why that would bother Kun so much.

You were still standing there dumfounded when Yuta jogged in, Ten right behind him. The shorter man declared cheerfully, “Found him!”

“Sorry, I was getting you some water,” Yuta apologized for his disappearance, holding out a sweating water bottle to you. As he got closer to you, his face dropped, and his voice turned concerned, “Something happen, Y/N?”

“Hm?” You snapped your eyes up to his as you accepted the drink, throwing on a half-hearted smile, “Oh, I was just going over the choreography in my head again and zoned out a bit.”

He ruffled your hair reassuringly, earning a glare from you, “Don’t worry about it, we’re going to kill it.”

Pushing thoughts of Kun out of your mind, you chugged half the bottle right before a staff member came by to start ushering the both of you out to the stage. You put your whole being into that performance, not caring that didn’t even perform this passionately during any practice or the dress rehearsals earlier. Even _you_ would have been fooled by the show you put on with Yuta. To sell the ending, you even pecked his cheek, catching him off-guard and causing the volume of the crowd to increase by tenfold.

You waved goodbye to Yuta as Key entered from the other side of the stage, holding a handheld mic out to you. Somehow, you still had even more fire after your other four songs, putting even more of yourself into this performance than the last one. After all, no matter what happened in your life, you always had music and performing to turn to. It was the one outlet in your life that nobody could ever take away from you, that would be there for you if nobody else was. The perfect distraction and the perfect healer.

* * *

The rest of the concert passed by in a blur: wishing as many of your fellow artists luck, hunting down every member of NCT except Kun before their various stages, the encore stages, the thirty minutes spent running all around the stage with every performer to say goodbye to and interact with your fans, cramming way too many people into your booth at the dinner everyone went out to afterwards. Time didn’t seem to slow down until you were collapsing on your bed at well after midnight, having barely been able to get yourself into your pajamas.

Your phone rang in your pocket, and you fumbled around in your sweatpants for it. Groaning, it was of course the one person you couldn’t bring yourself to decline a call from. Accepting the call, you merely groaned into the phone as a greeting.

“Y/N, you were a freaking legend on stage today!” Chenle squealed out excitedly through your speakers, and you desperately turned the volume down.

“Thanks, LeLe. Why are you calling me from Jisungie’s phone?” You sighed, this wasn’t who you were expecting.

“I knew you wouldn’t answer if you saw that it was me!”

“Smart boy.”

Your hand was hovering over the end call button when he yelled out, “Wait! Don’t hang up yet!”

He knew you too well.

“Zhong Chenle I swear to God I will come to your hotel room and smother you with a pillow.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I’m going to hang up now. If you call me or disturb me again, I will not hesitate to stuff a pillow so far down your throat you’ll be shitting out a bird tomorrow.”

With that final remark, you hung up, ignoring Taeyeon’s giggles from the bathroom as she did her nighttime skincare routine. Burrowing your face back into your pillow, the garish sound of your phone ringing came again. Letting out a nearly inhuman screech, you declined the call from “Jisung” and yanked the charger out from it. Taeyeon didn’t even get a goodbye from you as you burst out of your hotel room, destination and target in mind.

Pounding on the door to the room that you knew Chenle, Jisung, and Renjun were staying in, you thought of nothing else besides ending Zhong Chenle’s life in the next two minutes.

“Who is it?” The poorly-disguised voice of Chenle came from the other side.

“You know who it is, you little shit!” You growled, giving the door another sharp hit, earning a yelp from the boy on the other side. “Open up!”

“Ah, I don’t have hands, can’t use a door handle, sorry!”

Frustrated, you kicked the door and shouted through it, “Stop calling me! I just want to sleep!”

Your enraged tone withered out to one that almost sounded like a small cry, your exhaustion flooding every part of your body as tears welled up in your eyes. Just as you were going to leave, the door across the hall flew open, revealing an equally disheveled and pissed Qian Kun.

“Can you _please_ shut the fuck up?” He sighed, leaning in his doorway with his arms crossed.

The door behind you was suddenly opened as well, and you turned to face it again as Jisung stood there reluctantly. Chenle’s head peered around from behind the taller boy, “Yuta and Lucas are in our room, you two have major crushes on each other and need to talk about it. Bye!”

Jisung offered you an apologetic look as Chenle pulled him back and slammed the door closed again. You didn’t want to turn around, to see Kun’s face and hear your inevitable rejection come from his lips. Hear that there’s no way he could possibly like you. Maybe he’d even throw in a pity apology too.

“I asked you out like, four years ago, Y/N.” He finally spoke, nearly making you choke on your own spit. “I thought this was over and done with after that.”

Your eyes nearly popped out of your skull as you whipped around to face him, “You what? When?”

Kun sighed before his lips formed a tight line, unwilling to explain it, but did nonetheless, “I sang you something, and all you did was say that my skills had improved so much.”

His voice gained force as he spoke, increasing the already palpable tension in the room.

“You were learning Korean and you sang me a song in Korean! I thought you were just showing me something new you had learned! How was I supposed to know that was a confession?” You spat back out, in disbelief that he was actually trying to blame this on you. You were practically foaming at the mouth with anger, and neither of you said anything for a moment as you glared at each other with only centimeters between your faces.

“Oh please—”

“Do you _try_ to make me mad? Are you in constant pursuit of pissing me off or something?”

“Yes.”

Well that wasn’t the answer you were expecting. You were caught off-guard for a moment before regaining enough of your wits to say, “Excuse me?”

“It’s the only time you’ll actually look me in the eye or say more than a word to me. The only way I can get any sort of real interaction with you.” Kun’s tone became soft and bitter.

“You…” you trailed off with a sigh, still pissed off but not as enraged as before.

“I really want to kiss you but I’m pretty sure they’re taking turns watching us through the peephole.” He admitted, referencing the boys occupying the room behind you.

His words excited goosebumps along your arms, he really did feel the same as you. An idea formed in your mind, and you raised your voice again, “You’re such a fucking jerk!”

He seemed confused for a moment before catching on, “Stop screaming in the hallway, you’re going to wake everyone up!”

“You’re yelling too!”

Scoffing, he opened his door wider for you, mockingly gesturing you in. With a roll of your eyes and a huff, you walked in. “Nice eye roll,” Kun whispered as he shut the door behind you.

“Thanks.”

And then his hands were gripping the sides of your face, pulling you further into the room as his lips molded onto yours. Your surprised hands gripped onto his arms as he continued kissing you until you were dizzy. And even past that. The logical part of you was screaming for air while the other half never wanted this to end, intoxicated by the feeling. Eventually it seemed that _his_ logical side won over, as he pulled back from you.

Kun’s cheeks were pink, his pupils blown wide, and his breathing matched your own ragged pace. And for some reason you started laughing.

It was just a giggle, then it turned into laughing, then full-blown cackling as tears came to your eyes. He looked at you with a confused but fond smile until your crying-laughing became actual crying, hiccupping sobs coming from your mouth. The smile immediately fell from his face as he became concerned, pulling you into his chest and holding you closely, one hand going to stroke your hair.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He whispered softly as you let yourself bury your face in the crook of his neck.

“I’m so… tired.” Was all you could get out to describe how you were feeling. Both physically and emotionally. The past five years had been so emotionally taxing on you, and today furthered that pain as well as taxing your body. And finally, that great weight had been taken off of you. You could breathe again, you could relax again.

“Me too,” Kun chuckled, lifting his head a little to peck your temple.

All the heat from before had fizzled out, leaving you with a warm embarrassment flooding through your body. Apparently Kun could sense your change in mood as you squirmed in his arms a little, “Don’t go getting shy around me again, Y/N. I think I might die.”

“Me too,” you mumbled, forcing yourself to look at him.

He had nothing but kindness and adoration in his features as he brought his face near yours again. The kiss was soft, and you could finally react to it, gently kissing him back. Though you wanted to stay like this forever, there were still four boys waiting to see the outcome through their peephole, not to mention to whole world waiting to see the next bit of your fake relationship.

“What are we going to do?” The depressing question tumbled from your lips before you could stop it, well aware that you were completely ruining the moment.

“Figure it out, somehow. I promise.”

“I should get going, the boys are going to be suspicious by the lack of shouting.” Despite your words, you still made no move to disentangle yourself from Kun’s arms, instead just kissing him again.

“You’re right.” He kissed you one more time.

“What’s our story for what happened in here?”

“We still hate each other’s guts? And then we can come up with a better one when we get back home?”

You nodded, “Sounds good.”

Kun kissed you again, and you begrudgingly pulled yourself back from him, heading towards the door.

“Guess I should look pissed coming out of here, right?” You said, with your hand on the door handle.

“One more thing,” he swooped in for one more long, sweet kiss. “Okay, bye.”

“Bye,” you croaked out before clearing your throat and raising your voice, “I can’t believe I ever tried to be nice to you! You’re the most insufferable jerk I’ve ever met!”

Throwing the door open, you slammed it behind you as hard as you could before storming off down the hall to the elevator.

In your room, Taeyeon was asleep, and you crept quietly into your own bed. Your phone buzzed, an you opened it under your covers, not wanting to disturb your sleeping roommate with the light.

[qian kun: can i make you dinner when we get back tomorrow?]

[you: how about a nice long nap instead? my place]

[qian kun: that sounds fantastic]

And as you drifted off to sleep, a single thought broke through your giddiness at your blossoming relationship with Kun. You were already lying about one relationship, you didn’t know how well you could lie about two.


End file.
